Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/195

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Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict.
167

underlying victory and defeat in magical conflict, and the results, if they are admitted to be proven, can rightly claim to be given some weight in the consideration of the basis of magical efficacy. Power is the fundamental principle on which magical efficacy is based, and, throughout the varied manifestations of magical practice, at least the tacit presupposition of the exercise of power can be traced; for, without it, its forms are invalid. Hotspur put the case in a nutshell to Owen Glendower:

"Glendower. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur.Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But do they come when you do call for them?"